TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR THE RECRUITMENT OF CONSULTANTS FOR THE DESIGN OF A BUSINESS PLAN FOR IRC RWANDA

Location: Kigali.                                                                                                     

Language required: English.

Background

IRC's raison d'être is to address the low access to WASH services that undermines well-being and economy in poor countries. The cause of this problem is the lack of skills, tools and will for the realisation of human rights to WASH by the public system. Those responsible for this problem are all the stakeholders in the governance of WASH services failing to effectively complete their respective roles: the public authorities, the operators contracted by the authorities, the donors, the civil servants, and the technocrats, the citizens, the taxpayers, and the consumers.

IRC's fundamental intervention hypothesis is as follows: By empowering those responsible for low access to WASH services with the requisite skills and stimulating their commitment to realising human rights to WASH, the public system will effectively develop, manage and operated WASH and achieve universal access at district, national, regional, and global level.

IRC's core mission from this hypothesis is the design, testing and dissemination of solutions and tools for the effective governance, development, and management of WASH services.

Design and testing are done through action research. Dissemination is done through technical assistance (consultancy, studies); capacity building (training; facilitation of learning and access to knowledge products); and advocacy (strategic Influence).

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As a mission-driven social enterprise, IRC strengthens and transforms the systems for water, sanitation, and hygiene delivery at 4 interlinked levels: in selected partner districts, focus countries, and at regional and global level. The organisation combines, packages, and sells a mix of products and services as programmes to be funded by donors, and as a paid-for-service in the form of projects, assignments and training services, to different types of clients and donors. The organisation continuously develops new business in line with their mission.

IRC is aiming to grow, to achieve and to sustain greater and systemic impact across the world. This ambition requires the organisation to better anchor itself in the respective societal and institutional systems that need to transform to deliver effective public services that last. To support that, IRC is changing from one organisation headquartered in The Netherlands into an international federation, tentatively named “One IRC “, of country, regional and global members.

Each member of the future federation will have their own business plan, defining the sets of products and services and the cost and revenue model. Each member is expected to be financially viable, and provide a contribution for coordination, support, and control roles of the federation (One IRC). Through an internal market mechanism, the members obtain and contract services from other members. Members do not only leverage each other’s expertise, they also share (financial) risks and provide a certain degree of solidarity.

IRC is present in Rwanda since 2021 thanks to a hosting agreement with Water for People for the implementation of the Isoko project. Given the opportunities in the country, IRC is intending to build a country entity which will engage into the IRC federation as member countries among other. For providing strong evidence for the financial viability of this entity, IRC needs to design a business plan for the entity in Rwanda.

Responsibilities

The overall objective of the mandate is to develop a business plan for IRC in Rwanda according to the guiding principles and vision of the One IRC federation.

The specific objectives of the mandate are to:

• To analyse the market (financing opportunities) through trends over the last 5 years and perspectives to 2026.
• Guide the IRC team for defining the criteria and define the market share to be targeted by the entity by 2026.
• Guide the IRC team for updating the results framework based on the results of the market study (update the current strategic frameworks).
• Guide the IRC team for developing the 2026 financial operating forecasts for each entity based on the existing P&L framework.
• Guide the IRC team for reviewing business scenarios for their financial viability: one scenario in which each entity is fully autonomous with the country market, another scenario in which the country entity may need to work in neighbouring countries (to be explicitly reviewed) to reach the financial viability. This may be based on the minimum business size and mitigation against risks.
• Understand the process and requirement for registration of a a national NGO or consultancy firm in Rwanda and recommend the best option.
• If any, analyse the challenges regarding receiving funds from different sources of funder while implementing activities in Rwanda.
• Draft the business plans to 2026 with particular attention to the following content:
  • Problems to be addressed.
  • Proposed solutions and justification of relevance through benchmarking.
  • Target customers (quantitative and qualitative analysis and explanation of their motivation to use the proposed services).
  • Financial analysis of the market and definition of the target share by 2026 in relation to the expected effects and impacts.
  • Analysis of the competition and definition of differentiation, mitigation, or anticipation measures.
  • Analysis of the managerial and technical skill requirements for the provision of the targeted services in the context of the managerial autonomy and financial viability of each entity; and determination of the gap to be filled by the system in place for the entity in terms of skills, and staffing, as well as the most efficient ways of mobilising them.
  • Analysis of the needs and opportunities for strategic partnerships for the provision of the services targeted by the entity; and determination of the gap to be filled in relation to the existing system.
  • Definition of the appropriate template for annual operating plans to ensure the successful implementation of the business plan for the entity.
  • Development of the marketing and funding mobilisation strategy for the services offered with a particular focus on efficiency based on the latest technical and technological innovations best suited to the needs of the entity.
  • Recommendations on legal registration options most suitable to pursue IRC business in Rwanda (and neighbouring countries if needed). The legal and regulatory compliance requirements need to be captured in this assessment.

Deliverables

1. Evidence based Recommendation note on go / no go for IRC business in Rwanda.
2. Business plan for the IRC Rwanda entity.

Recommended methodology

• Kick-off meeting with country leads to discuss scope.
• Bibliographic review and examination of documents already available on the entity.
• Stimulation and facilitation of strategic thinking and intellectual production by the management teams of the entity.
• Surveys of and interviews with relevant external actors (target clients, target donors).
• Serious exploration of credible local funding / market opportunities alongside external development assistance and definition of creative marketing strategies.

The consultants during this assignment will be working in close collaboration with IRC Rwanda team and the consultant will be supported to access and meet the key stakeholders for this assignment as well as with national context knowledge and expertise. 

Skills and experiences required

The consultants must have the following qualifications:

• At least 15 years of experience as a consultant and a deep knowledge of the market of intellectual services in the field of public governance, public services, institutional development in Rwanda and neighboring countries.
• At least 10 years of proven experience at national and/or international level as a mission leader in the development of business plans for social enterprises.
• Excellent facilitation skills with senior managing staff.
• Excellent writing and speaking skills in English.

Duration of the assignment

4 months maximum starting in June 2023.

Application

This assignment is open to teams of individual consultants.

Applicants are invited to submit their technical proposal, including the detailed methodology, the timeline, and the budget. Please ensure that the proposal contains all the details necessary for the completion of the assignment.

In order to be considered for this assignment, the team of consultants shall submit the following documents before 2^nd June 2023 (end of business day):

• Curriculum Vitae
• List of 3 references
• Portfolio describing past similar work that relates to this assignment.
• VAT registration certificate; RRA tax clearance certificate; RSSB tax clearance certificate (where applicable)

Applications will only be received by email at africahub@ircwash.org

Applications will be reviewed based on technicality (70%) and cost (30%):

• Technicality: will be assessed on a score of 0 to 70 based on the submitted documents.
• Cost: lowest financial proposal will score higher.

The applicant with highest cumulative score on both technical content and financial cost of the proposal will be selected.